Beheading monster to be given greater freedom

Four years ago,  a sick man, Vince Li, took the life of an innocent fellow passenger on a greyhound bus.   It was one of the most gruesome cases to ever take place in Manitoba as the victim, 22-year-old Tim McLean, was stabbed, beheaded and cannibalized.  Read here.

The sheer shock value of the crime was enough to warrant the public and even myself, to call for revenge of kind.  Li was found not criminally responsible for the murder due to insanity and was placed in a psychiatric institution, much to the chagrin of many.

To add insult to injury,  Li, who according to his doctors, has been responding very well to his medications, is being recommended for greater freedom.  This basically means that he would allowed to go on escorted walks. (A police would be present). Click here for full story.

The public say nay but I say yay.  Why not? Li has done something bad, very bad.  Something most of us would never wish to have done to anyone we remotely know.  The evilness of it makes us crave revenge and revenge only, but Li did it because he was sick and needed help.  He had no hate for his victim. He was driven to do what he did because of a wiring problem in his brain.  Should he be made to pay for the rest of his life? No matter how much he suffers, the fate of Tim McLean would be the same.

Mental illness is serious and it is real.  There are potential Vince Li’s walking among us.  It could be me and it could be you.  I would hate to lose my life as I know it for a crime I have no recollection of committing.  Wouldn’t you?  As bad as this may sound, if the killing of Tim helped Li to get the treatment he needed and maybe thus saving him from killing more people, then he did not die in vain.

Maybe I am a little sick to see it that way but it’s my take, popular or not.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Related articles

• Doctor asks bus beheading hearing to allow Vince Li escorted trips into community (thestar.com)
• Review set for man who beheaded bus passenger (ctv.ca)

17 years for shooting called ‘excessive’

In another example of justice being miscarried, a Winnipeg man saw his sentence of 17 years reduced to 14 because it was deemed ‘excessive’.   Considering the high rate of re-offenders, I am greatly appalled by this development.

The reduction was also based on the fact that although the accused had a significant criminal background, few, not much just few, of them were crimes of violence. How reassuring.  He has only hurt people a few times so he’s still a nice guy.  Ten more crimes of violence and that’s it, Mister!  Apparently he is still below his violence quota.   What a joke!

Back to the story.  So this perp, attempted killer, supposedly set out to sell a gun to his buddy so he could afford his drug habit.   To me that’s 14 years right there.   He met him at his house chatting with a cab driver who the accused knew and hated.   As he approached, gun in hand, finger on trigger, gun loaded and pointed,  the mother of all coincidences, he stumbled.  To further complicate things, while falling, his finger pressed the trigger of the loaded gun, discharging a bullet into the chest of the cab driver!  A guy that he knew and hated. Wow!  His friend is a very lucky man.  Could easily have been him instead of the cabbie.   Read it all here.

I have no doubt that this guy would be out within a few years AND I also have no doubt that his significant criminal record will get even more significant.  Way to go Justice System!

Related:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Man-who-shot-cab-driver-gets-3-years-cut-off-sentence-150638595.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Bakema-discounted-alcohol-impairment-in-Taman-crash-officer-150646795.html

 

In Response To, “Race” Not An Issue in the Trayvon Martin Murder?

I recently  blogged about the case of a young and unarmed black kid, Trayvon Martin shot by a white man, George Zimmerman.  Read here.   It was basically an opinion stating that from what I could deduce, I saw no sign that race was a factor in the killing.   A fellow blogger responded to the contrary in a reply to my post.  Read that here.

As one who loves to argue/discuss a good point and for those of you who share this blogger’s opinion, here’s my response.

I am painfully aware that injustice against blacks (Other races too but let’s stick to the topic) do exist.  Like I said, I did as much research as I could on the Trayvon’s case.  Before doing any researching, my initial conclusion  was that it was 100% racially motivated.  Nothing I read confirmed this.  I did read the ‘black coon’ comment and my first reaction was to go ‘aha! so it WAS a race thing’ then on further reading, I found that this comment was inconclusive.  ’F*ing coon’ was later thought to have been ‘f*ing cold’ then ‘f*ing punks’ by forensic audio experts.  Only a biased mind would argue that it was indeed ‘f*ing coon’.

The blogger went on to say ‘ Perhaps you haven’t noticed that this is indicative of a continuing trend of a lack of follow-up on crimes perpetrated against black people?‘  Ironic indeed since one of my first blogs was based on the injustice in the Troy Davis’ case.  Another black man.  Read that blog here.  I even did a part two on that case as it really touched me.  Part 2 here.  So you see, I am in fact not blinded to racially atrocities against blacks.  I however, choose to be objective rather than subjective.

Another irony is the blogger wrote,  ”Perhaps, you haven’t considered that had it been a black man who had shot a young white kid, that there would be no way in heck that that black man would have been walking around free, and armed, for weeks afterwards?”  On my blog on the Troy Davis case, I wrote ‘ I do not like to go there but it begs to ask, would it have been different if Troy was a white man?‘  Ample proof that I do know the ‘truth’, you would agree.

“The older I get, the more I become convinced that people don’t take too much seriously unless it happens to them, or “theirs.” It’s easy to talk about “being Christian,” and “learning to forgive,” but even Jesus believed in justice.”

From reading many of my blogs dealing with pain and tragedy and the miscarriage of justice, there should be no doubt that I do take matters such as this with all seriousness.  I have children and family that I love dearly so I know how I would feel should I be in the victims’ shoes.   As a christian, I admit that my first response is usually to put things in a spiritual perspective.  No apologies there.  It is really refreshing when I read of parents forgiving the killers of their spouse or kids.  I pray daily for strength to be able to be man enough to do that.  For the records,  Jesus did not believe in the justice dispense by us humans and that’s why he preached forgiveness every chance he got.

Finally, here is an excerpt from Trayvon’s mother herself.  As the grieving parent, she could have labeled this a hate crime but didn’t.  Her take was rather noble and level-headed.

‘Saying she believed the shooting death of her 17-year-old son was “an accident,’’ Sybrina Fulton revealed on NBC’s Today Show her opinion in the case for the first time Thursday.

“I believe it was an accident,’’ Fulton said. “I believe that it just got out of control, and he couldn’t turn the clock back.’’

. . .

Fulton added that she sympathizes with the Zimmerman family, but asked for their understanding as well.

“I understand that his family is hurting, but think about our family. We lost our teenage son,’’ she told Today Show anchor Ann Curry. “I’m sure his parents can pick up the phone and call him, but we can’t pick up the phone and call Trayvon any more.’’

Related articles

• Who Cares About Race? (pjmedia.com)
• Reflections on the Trayvon Martin case (themoxiesophic.com)
• Trayvon’s Mom Sybrina Fulton Thinks Shooting Was an Accident (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• Trayvon, Emmett and America’s Unfinished Business (jeffwinbush.com)
• Justice For Trayvon Martin Should Have Been Served Hot (myvuze.wordpress.com)
• Trayvon Martin: The Problem With the ‘Some of My Best Friends Are Black’ Defense (ideas.time.com)
• The Tragic Death of Trayvon Martin: The Reflections of C.S. Lewis (wannabepretentious.wordpress.com)
• Trayvon Martin: the criminalisation of black children must end | Ava Vidal (guardian.co.uk)
• One Woman’s “I Am Not Trayvon Martin” Vid Goes Viral – Does She Have A Point? (clutchmagonline.com)
• Paging Obama, Holder, and Sharpton: Black Man Shoots Unarmed Hispanic Man in Arizona, Claims ‘Self Defense’ (sfcmac.wordpress.com)
• “I am not Trayvon Martin” (newblackwoman.com)
• Hoodies and Race (markosun.wordpress.com)
• Coon hunting, slave-catchers and vigilantes (dailykos.com)

Justice For Trayvon Martin Should Have Been Served Hot

The unfortunate and tragic incident involving the shooting of a young black kid, Trayvon Martin, has got me doing some reading as I try to come to my own unbiased conclusions.  From what I have read so far, I see it as an isolated case of  an unprovoked confrontation gone wrong.  Nothing I read made me think it had anything to do with race.  Zimmerman, the guy who shot young Trayvon, acted over zealously and obviously has some underlying and unresolved personal issues.  No one knows what was driving him that night.  It would have been advisable to have him tested for drug use following the shooting but unfortunately this was not done.

This case has gotten more than its fair share of publicity due in part to the racial undertones that also makes it so volatile.  Should Zimmerman have been arrested and charged? Absolutely.  Manslaughter, or second degree murder charges should have been brought against him.  It was indeed a miscarriage of justice on the part of the system.  The definition of justice states: ‘The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law’.  Everyone is innocent until proven guilty but when there someone is killed in an altercation, the killer, if his guilt could be ascertained, should be arrested then and there.  Heck, I’ve known several cases right here in my city where a home owner was charged for defending his property.

In a world where fear and hate walk hand in hand, events like this unfold daily with the same consequences.  Maybe it was a hate crime, maybe it wasn’t.  Either way it should never had happened but it did and it does and I hate to say it but it will always happen.  What should we do?  We have to be ready to forgive and not seek revenge.  Ready to be open to the fact that even though they acted like monsters, they are still humans in need of help.  Zimmerman obviously had demons that night.  He was walking around armed and willing to use firepower on an unarmed youth that he outweighed by 40 pounds.  It doesn’t matter if the kid was white or yellow, justice must be served.

It is a pity that it took the voices of the masses to finally spur the system to right the wrong and seek to bring charges against Zimmerman.  I hope that he gets a fair trial and come to terms with what he did.  I also hope he seeks and gets the help he certainly needs.

And that’s my take.

NOTE:  Immediately after drafting this blog, the news broke that George Zimmerman was arrested and charged with second degree murder of the unarmed youth.  I added the last paragraph and changed the topic to reflect this.

Related articles

• George Zimmerman To Be Charged In Trayvon Martin Case [VIDEO] (hellobeautiful.com)
• George Zimmerman: Victim of Racist Hatred and Liberal Ignorance (thecollegeconservative.com)
• Zimmerman dodges first degree murder charge and launches website (lameducks.wordpress.com)
• George Zimmerman Could Be Charged With a Hate Crime [Trayvon Martin] (gawker.com)
• Open Season on Bunnies and Black Folk… (darkactsbible.wordpress.com)

Don’t speak ill of the dead. Oh, and don’t lie either

Reading the newspaper this week, I came upon yet another murder in my normally peaceful and perfect city.  This time it was a 21 year old aspiring model.  A handsome looking dude from the pictures.  He was  found shot to death in the front yard of a house located in a not-so-nice part of the city.

This happened last Saturday and has been in the news for the last few days since then.  One thing that stood out for me was the fact that his friends and family were very adamant in insisting that this young man had no ties to gangs or drugs, thus lending credence to the  ’That’s what they all say” mantra.

The newspaper’s front page this morning stated that the police were investigating possible gang link in the killing.  The deceased was apparently wearing a Hell’s Angels’ support T-shirt when he was found.   Wearing a T-shirt or any other item of clothing does not necessarily qualify as being a gangster but the fact that he was in the company of gang members in a car stopped by cops back in February and his older brother is a known gang member, does nothing to allay suspicions.  Too many coincidences.

So, when someone dies, do we tell their life like it was or do we try to paint a more acceptable picture of them?  If so, why?  Why isn’t it koshered to say ‘Ole Sam was one ornery man.  He never had anything nice to say and was cruel to humans and animals alike.  Yep, that’s Sam.  He sure wasn’t a good man.”  That would not only be the truth but reflects exactly what everyone knows about the deceased.   Why say he was a good man with good intentions when everyone knows or suspect that he was far from that?   It’s up to the deceased to sell his ‘good man’ story to God.  We can’t help him in that regard.

The question now is, since we are told not to speak ill of the dead, do we lie about the dead? But we were also told not to lie, so which one takes precedence?  Does the saying, ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all’ apply to the dead?

Oh my!  There must be some really quiet funeral services out there!

Just my take.

 

Junko furuta

I came across the following article on the weekend, posted on a friend’s Facebook status.  It is another example of gross miscarriage of the justice system and also a disgusting and sick example of how disgusting and sick we humans can be.  This crime is unimaginable.  Be warned, the content is very graphic and detailed.  Do not read if you are sensitive.  Here is a summary.

Troy Davis 2

Killer spared from death hours before execution

Samuel David Crowe in an undated photo. The parole board in the state of Georgia spared a convicted killer from execution hours before he was due to die by lethal injection on Thursday and commuted his sentence to life in prison.

Credit: Reuters/Georgia Department of Corrections/Handout

Related Topics

• U.S. »

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA | Thu May 22, 2008 9:57pm EDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) – The parole board in the U.S. state of Georgia spared a convicted killer from execution hours before he was due to die by lethal injection on Thursday and commuted his sentence to life in prison.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles made its decision less than three hours before Samuel David Crowe, 47, was to be executed, according to a spokeswoman for the state’s prisons.

“After careful and exhaustive consideration of the requests, the board voted to grant clemency. The board voted to commute the sentence to life without parole,” the parole board said.

Crowe’s death would have marked the third execution since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty last month.

Crowe was not present at the parole board hearing in Atlanta. He had already eaten his last meal and was preparing to enter the execution chamber at the prison in Jackson, Georgia, Mallie McCord of the Georgia Department of Corrections said.

In March 1988, Crowe killed store manager Joseph Pala during a robbery at the lumber company in Douglas County, west of Atlanta. Crowe, who had previously worked at the store, shot Pala three times with a pistol, beat him with a crowbar and a pot of paint.

Crowe pleaded guilty to armed robbery and murder and was sentenced to death the following year.

“David (Crowe) takes full responsibility for his crime and experiences profound remorse,” according to Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an advocacy group, who welcomed the board’s decision.

The decision to grant clemency on the day of an execution was “extraordinarily rare,” said Stephen Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

In most cases, clemency decisions rested with a state governor frequently under political pressure to show firmness with death row inmates rather than with a clemency board independent of the state political process, he said.

At Thursday’s hearing, his lawyers presented a dossier of evidence attesting to his remorse and good behavior in jail, according to local media reports. The lawyers also said he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a cocaine addiction at the time of the crime.

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 16 rejected a challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most U.S. executions, which opponents claimed inflicted unnecessary pain. Georgia then conducted an execution on May 5.

Georgia has executed 41 men since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973 and this week it had 109 prisoners on death row.

There you have it folks!  I just found the above on the web.  Very interesting to say the least. So this guy commits a crime that he plead guilty of and he’s spared execution while another not only plead his innocence but had no evidence against him YET he was executed?? Come on, you cannot tell me nothing is afoot here. I am not even going to play the race card on this because I hate the ‘because I am black’ excuse but you judge for yourself.  If you can find nothing wrong with this scenario then it’s ok too because it is basically just My Take.

Troy Davis

Yesterday, the state of Georgia may have executed an innocent man. May is the operative word here. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, Troy Davis is a black guy accused of killing a Policeman who had gone to assist someone being beaten.  Troy Turned himself in but claimed he did not do it.  It is a claim he took with him to his grave.  Seven of nine ‘Witnesses’ who initially gave statements implicating him, have since recanted their stories some claimed coercion by the cops. Despite all this and the lack of circumstantial evidence, he was still denied a new trial.  After numerous delays and letters from many VIPs including the Pope, the sentence was upheld and he was executed by lethal injection.

Now whatever happened to ‘Innocent until proven guilty?’.  OJ Simpson has taught me that if ‘it doesn’t fit, you must acquit’, so this means if Troy Davis cannot be linked to the crime by any evidence and statements saying he was were tainted, isn’t that a case for a mistrial even? Why go ahead with an execution on such doubtful grounds?  Two things come to mind here.  I do not like to go there but it begs to ask, would it have been different if Troy was a white man?  Would it have had a different outcome if it was just a normal Joe that was killed? In the very least, this man should have been given a life sentence so he could be around if and when it is found out that he was indeed an innocent man.

To touch on the DEATH PENALTY. I am anti death penalty for reasons including this.  It is a gruesome and barbaric act that we as an ever changing society, should have done away with a long time ago.  We could ban prayers in schools, change Christmas Tree to Holiday Tree, approve gay marriages and make other changes as we evolved but we drag along this savage practice that exposes our savagery and blood thirst.  If that is the system we rely on, it is failing us. Badly.

But that is just MY TAKE…